[Festival] IFF Weekly | July 31 - August 4

[IFF Team]

Dear Friends,

Here are your updates for the week of July 31 - August 4:

### News and Updates ###

Our News and Updates section is driven by you! Be sure to include us in
your rounds of announcements and campaign updates!

*** Help the #Istanbul10  ***

Amnesty International is asking that people send messages to Turkish
Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül demanding the release of the human
rights defenders and information technology trainers that were detained
earlier this month. To help with the collection of these messages, they
have set up an online form.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/tell-erdogan-free-amnesty-turkey-idil-eser-and-nine-others

In addition, we encourage you to read Tanya O’Carroll’s Motherboard
article where she discusses why the arrest of IT trainers Ali Gharavi
and Peter Steudtner is troubling since it signals that Turkey is
widening its net to include technologists. She notes that arrest
warrants for more than 100 IT employees were issued a week after the
#Istanbul10 arrests.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vbm9yx/why-the-arrest-of-it-trainers-in-turkey-affects-us-all

*** First Public Beta of Briar Needs Testers ***

Briar, a secure messaging app for Android, is in need of beta testers.
The app, which connects users using a peer-to-peer network, does not
rely on servers or the internet. You can submit your feedback
anonymously through the app or publicly in the project's issue tracker:
https://code.briarproject.org/akwizgran/briar/issues

IMPORTANT: Potential testers thinking of deploying the app in high-risk
environments should note that the app is still in beta. This means that
bugs are still actively being found and fixed. You can see the results
of their recent independent security audit, which they passed, here:
https://briarproject.org/raw/BRP-01-report.pdf

*** Leaders from the Amazon region release a statement about recent
developments regarding the new gTLD domain .amazon ***

Various leaders from the Amazon region in Latin America have posted a
response to the latest decision regarding the new gTLD domain .amazon
While initially ICANN had issued consensus advice objecting to the
issuance of the .amazon to the company Amazon.com after several Latin
countries came forth, the tech giant recently had a big win. The
Independent Review panel recently determined that ICANN’s board gave too
much deference to the GAC and that it should reconsider its decision. To
learn more about the situation and to view statement by the group,
please visit: https://bestbits.net/amazon/

*** Activists fighting Thailand’s crackdown against online dissent ***

On June 9, a Thai man was sentenced to 35 years in jail for sharing
Facebook posts for allegedly defaming the king. This comes after Thai
authorities threatened to shut down Facebook if they failed to remove
content deemed “inappropriate.”
https://asiancorrespondent.com/2017/07/cyber-activists-fighting-thailands-crackdown-online-dissent/

*** The Global Crackdown on VPNs Continues ***

On July 29, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law that prohibits
the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other internet proxy
services. It will be implemented November 1 and signals to Putin’s
control over internet access.
https://qz.com/1041927/after-chinas-crackdown-now-russia-is-banning-vpns-too/


### Community Stories ###

This week’s story is from Kalyan Dikshit in Hyderabad where he documents
his experience working in the Internet Freedom community:

“...the “Internet” was something of a miracle and we could see it
beginning to take shape in our schools and our society. It was something
that gave me hope, it made me excited for the future.”

https://medium.com/iff-community-stories/is-internet-safe-for-futuregeneration-9de04625b28b


### Upcoming Events ###

Would you like to see a calendar of these and many other events online?
Let us know and please keep us informed about events you plan on attending!

* SHA2017 *
+ When: August 4-8, 2017
+ Where: Scoutinglandgoed in Zeewolde, Netherlands
+ Website: https://sha2017.org/

The outdoor hacker camp/conference, SHA2017, this year will feature Camp
Explody, where you can meet people from EFF, FPF, and many others.

* MyData 2017 *
+ When: August 30-Sep 1
+ Where: Tallinn (Estonia) & and (Helsinki, Finland)
+ Website: https://mydata2017.org/

MyData brings together communities from the business, research, civil
society and government communities to shape how personal data is managed
globally.

* COCONET (Southeast Asia Digital Rights Camp) *
+ When: 22-26 October 2017
+ Where: Bali or Yogyakarta, Indonesia
+ Website: http://www.engagemedia.org/Projects/camp-coconet/

The Southeast Asia Digital Rights Camp COCONET (Connecting Communities &
Networks) currently has a call for proposals. The event is being
organized by EngageMedia, the Association for Progressive Communications
(APC), and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), along with key
regional allies.

* Simposio LAVITS 2017 *
+ When: 29 November - 01 December 2017
+ Where: Santiago, Chile
+ Website: https://datosprotegidos.org/lavits2017/

Abstracts for the Simposio LAVITS 2017 symposia are due on August 20.
The event focuses on instigating critical analysis and debate on crucial
issues surrounding surveillance in society with a specific focus on
Latin American.


### Spotlight! ###

Dan Bateyko, an internet rights researcher supported by a Watson
Fellowship, is looking for part-time volunteer opportunities in research
and writing while traveling in Central and South America from August
10th to September 10th.

+ Availability: Part-time, starting August 10th;
+ Location: Central and South America;
+ Ideal contribution: Research, Writing
+ Skills: Research, writing, editing, design and layout, CMS
+ Areas of interest: Internet rights, freedom of expression/online
censorship, digital commons, open data
+ Resume: https://dbateyko.me/static/resume.pdf
+ Contact: dbateyko at gmail.com


### Job Opportunities ###

All submitted jobs are always available at:

https://internetfreedomfestival.org/job-board/

✎ * Technologist – Amnesty International *
+ Berlin (Germany)
+ https://careers.amnesty.org/vacancy/technologist-1961/1987/description/

✎ * (Multiple Positions) – Peerio *
+ Montreal (Canada) or Remote
+ https://www.peerio.com/careers.html

✎ * Cyber Security Specialist – University of Essex *
+ Colchester (UK)
+
https://vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=971866Dzxq&WVID=9918109NEm


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Much respect,
The IFF Team